Is Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary worth the price?

[sweetpea904]

I am planning our annual family Disney summer vacation and have booked reservations at four different restaurants during our stay. We are staying at Port Orleans June 1st - 7th. I made reservations at T-Rex (DTD) as we have been trying to get in there the last 3 trips to Disney and it is always booked. We will be eating dinner there when we arrive on Sunday 6/1. I also made reservations at Hollywood & Vine as we said we are going to try a new restaurant at Hollywood Studios every time we go. I have only been there 3 times and so far have eaten at the Sci-Fi Dine In twice and the 50's Prime Time Cafe. I enjoyed both of those. I usually don't plan a sit down lunch or dinner at Magic Kingdom because with there being so many rides/attractions and the long lines, I never know when we are going to eat. We usually just grab a quick bite at Cosmic Ray's or Peco Bill's. There is so much to do at MK that I don't want to make reservations and be stuck an hour at a restaurant. There is so many restaurants in EPCOT to choose from that we just eat lunch and dinner wherever we happen to be when we are hungry. I have only been there twice and have eaten in Italy and Japan. I want to try a different country every time I go. So, back to me original question... sorry I got sidetracked. I booked a reservation at Chef Mickey's on our non-park day for dinner. I have always heard this is a MUST DO at least once and it will be nice to visit the Contemporary as I have only seen in while on the Monorail. I have also seen reviews saying it is expensive for just a buffet and not worth it. So, please HELP!!! I want to try something different as we always eat at DTD for lunch and/or dinner on the day we arrive then a sit down at HS and usually quick service at the rest. We try and eat breakfast in our room and maybe eat at our resort food court for dinner once must to try it out on a non-park day. I plan on eating at the POFQ one evening. Any helpful tips, suggestions, comments, recommendations, etc would be helpful

 

[rf53]

I am planning our annual family Disney summer vacation and have booked reservations at four different restaurants during our stay. We are staying at Port Orleans June 1st - 7th. I made reservations at T-Rex (DTD) as we have been trying to get in there the last 3 trips to Disney and it is always booked. We will be eating dinner there when we arrive on Sunday 6/1. I also made reservations at Hollywood & Vine as we said we are going to try a new restaurant at Hollywood Studios every time we go. I have only been there 3 times and so far have eaten at the Sci-Fi Dine In twice and the 50's Prime Time Cafe. I enjoyed both of those. I usually don't plan a sit down lunch or dinner at Magic Kingdom because with there being so many rides/attractions and the long lines, I never know when we are going to eat. We usually just grab a quick bite at Cosmic Ray's or Peco Bill's. There is so much to do at MK that I don't want to make reservations and be stuck an hour at a restaurant. There is so many restaurants in EPCOT to choose from that we just eat lunch and dinner wherever we happen to be when we are hungry. I have only been there twice and have eaten in Italy and Japan. I want to try a different country every time I go. So, back to me original question... sorry I got sidetracked. I booked a reservation at Chef Mickey's on our non-park day for dinner. I have always heard this is a MUST DO at least once and it will be nice to visit the Contemporary as I have only seen in while on the Monorail. I have also seen reviews saying it is expensive for just a buffet and not worth it. So, please HELP!!! I want to try something different as we always eat at DTD for lunch and/or dinner on the day we arrive then a sit down at HS and usually quick service at the rest. We try and eat breakfast in our room and maybe eat at our resort food court for dinner once must to try it out on a non-park day. I plan on eating at the POFQ one evening. Any helpful tips, suggestions, comments, recommendations, etc would be helpful

You should take a look at the recent reviews on TripAdvisor. While the experience of the character meal gets good reviews, recently Chef Mickey's has taken some hits on the quality of the food. This seems to be consistent with other reviewers out there that rate Chef Mickey's dinner menu several points below other higher end Disney World dinner menus. The bottom line is that you are paying for the character interaction as well as the food.

TripAdvisor Link:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaura...91-Reviews-Chef_Mickey_s-Orlando_Florida.html

 

[mom2cgj]

When you ask if it's worth the price, do you mean food quality alone? Or total experience? When we went back in Jan. 2013, I have to say I wasn't over-the-moon with the food, but it was decent buffet fare. The character interactions, however, were about the best we had at any character meal (with the exception of H&V). My kids have it on their list of must do again meals simply because of the characters. I think it's worth doing at least once.

 

[Dislover1991]

I agree with previous posters - definitely not the best food. I would say it's just standard buffet food with nothing really special added. But character interaction was good plus you have the fab five. It is one of the more pricey character meals (we paid $40 for breakfast compared to $28 at Cape May!) but you do have 5 characters.

We personally wouldn't go back and pay OOP because we do find other more inexpensive character meals to be better. But breakfast isn't bad by any means.

 

[sweetpea904]

You should take a look at the recent reviews on TripAdvisor. While the experience of the character meal gets good reviews, recently Chef Mickey's has taken some hits on the quality of the food. This seems to be consistent with other reviewers out there that rate Chef Mickey's dinner menu several points below other higher end Disney World dinner menus. The bottom line is that you are paying for the character interaction as well as the food.

Thank you, I will check out the reviews

 

[babydoll65]

We have done cm and the food quality was just not there. My son was 12 at the time so he really didn't care about the character interaction. We did the breakfast buffet at The Wave in the contemporary resort on our last trip and was fantastic. For three people on the breakfast buffet cost about 65.00 plus tip which was very reasonable and close to the magic kingdom

 

[colaslor]

Great dinner with little children

 

[colaslor]

Dinner is very tasty

 

[Holly Quinlan]

if you are going just for the characters you can see them at just about any other character meal

 

[DJFan88]

I definetly wouldn't call this a must do. Personally I didn't care for it, the food was not as good in my opinion as other buffets, like say CP or TH. I did not like the crazy tight fitting atmosphere either. My kids liked the food, but didn't care about the characters, which were plentiful. Probably if I had younger kids I can see why they may like it, but then if I did, I would much prefer TH atmosphere. If you want to check out Contemporary, we usually take a monorail ride, get off and go to their quick service and have one of their amazing cupcakes ( I think it was like pink lemonade or something last time I went) and then you've pretty much seen it all. Plus you will be able to see what's going on at CM, since it's pretty much just out there in the open.

 

[arcticdisneylovers]

Chef Mickey's is a must-do for us because of the FAB five but the buffet is the worst on property IMHO.

 

[msminnieears]

It's our tradition to eat at Chef Mickey's on our arrival day, it just gets us into the Disney spirit. The buffet is hit or miss. Our last trip in march the food was very good, better than we have ever had there. Our kids love the sundae bar and the characters. I would say it is a must do at least once but if you have kids beware, you'll be back.

 

[jenjersnap]

Consider breakfast - perhaps a late ADR that doubles as lunch - at CM instead of dinner. It is cheaper and the food is better than dinner. We have found dinner to be one step above terrible. Breakfast was my kids' favorite character meal this past trip which shocked me since we did many of them but the overall experience with the Fab 5 and the monorail zooming overhead...fun!